MMPI Characteristics of Parents of Children with ADHD

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The current study investigated the personality characteristics of parents of children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), which is commonly used in clinical medicine. METHODS: Participants were 117 parents of children with ADHD (96 boys and 21 girls) and 77 parents of comparison children (50 boys and 27 girls), who completed the Korean version of the MMPI. RESULTS: The MMPI scores of the fathers of ADHD children were significantly higher on the Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), Masculinity-Femininity (Mf), Paranoia (Pa), and Psychasthenia (Pt) scales than the comparison group's were. In addition, the mothers of ADHD children had higher MMPI scores on the traits of Hypochondriasis (Hs), Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), and Schizophrenia (Sc) than the comparisong roup had, but were not significantly higher. CONCLUSION: The fathers of ADHD children might be antisocial, irresolute, passive, paranoid, and anxious. In addition, mothers of ADHD children might have hypochondriacal, antisocial, and/or psychological confusional traits, but these were not be significantly high. These results suggest that the psychopathology of parents of ADHD children might correlate with their children's ADHD.